>G'Mornin' Anons… Another Day at the Office.
GMF
>Mornin' Ralph… Please pass the Covfefe.
14 hours ago -
Politics & Policy
ICE can raid churches and schools to arrest immigrants under new policy
April Rubin
A cross is reflected in glass panels on a building
A cross is reflected in glass panels at the Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, on Oct. 14. Photo: Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
Immigration officials can raid churches and schools to arrest undocumented immigrants after the Trump administration scrapped a policy that protected sensitive spaces.
The big picture: President Trump has promised aggressive immigration crackdowns, and the latest directive signals the Department of Homeland Security will consider operations at sites previously deemed off-limits.
"Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest," DHS announced Tuesday.
The policy, issued by Acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman, removes prior guidance to avoid so-called sensitive areas.
State of play: Trump, hours after being sworn in on Monday, issued executive orders that clear the way for the military to help combat illegal immigration.
He declared a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, called for more barriers at the southern border and designated Mexican cartels as a terrorism threat.
Flashback: Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in a 2011 memo directed officers to avoid arrests, interviews, searches and surveillance at sensitive locations if possible.
Those locations included schools, hospitals, churches, synagogues, mosques, funeral sites, weddings, marches, rallies or parades.
Zoom out: Immigration advocacy groups in places like Chicago, which Trump has singled out for potential raids, are encouraging undocumented populations to learn their rights.
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/21/trump-deportation-ice-churches-schools-raids
>ICE can raid churches and schools to arrest immigrants under new policy
>https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/trump-mass-deportations-ice-raids-executive-immigration-rcna188620
“It’s a lot of rhetoric designed to fear and terrorize people, especially immigrants,”said the Rev. Beth Brown of Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church in Chicago. “If they don’t have a signed judicial warrant, they still cannot enter church buildings or faith community buildings, because it’s not just churches — it’s all houses of worship.”
>https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/11/28/17-churches-to-become-migrant-shelters-as-city-hurries-to-provide-housing-for-winter/
17 Churches To Become Migrant Shelters As City Hurries To Provide Housing For Winter
The churches can house 20 migrants each as part of a new city partnership with faith groups to get people out of the cold.
by Mack Liederman and Colin Boyle
November 28, 2023Updated December 8, 2023
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Pastor John Zayas speaks alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson at a press conference on the mobilization of Chicago’s faith and philanthropic communities in providing housing and resources for new arrivals at Grace and Peace Lutheran Church on Nov. 28, 2023. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
CHICAGO — Churches across the city will be turned into temporary shelters in the latest attempt to get migrants inside as temperatures hit dangerous lows.
The city will begin moving migrants into 17 churches as soon as Wednesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson said at a Tuesday press conference. The Mayor’s Office did not immediately provide a full list of churches participating in the initiative.
Each church can house about 20 migrants, and the program will prioritize housing pregnant women, children and people still sleeping outside city police stations, Pastor John Zayas of Grace and Peace Church in Austin said Tuesday.
The city hopes to move migrants in and out of their partnering churches “as fast as possible,” Johnson said. The churches have also committed to the 60-day maximum stays now governing city migrant shelters, Zayas said.
Zayas said churches will look to increase capacity as the program continues.
The program is being funded by $350,000 in private donations, Zayas said. That includes a significant donation from employment law firm Fish Potter Bolaños, P.C., which has seen migrants “desperate to work” as new arrivals continue to outpace the number of federally authorized work permits, partner David Fish said.
Johnson, flanked by pastors and faith leaders including Revs. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church, coined the partnership “The Unity Initiative.” Johnson promised churches also would offer social services to help migrants find steady work and permanent housing.
More than a year into the city’s crisis to provide resources to thousands of migrants bused to Chicago from border states, the city is now “leaning in” to a faith community that has a long history of being the first to welcome new arrivals, said Johnson, who took office in May.
“The faith community has been doing this work, right from the very beginning, and so we’re investing in an infrastructure that quite frankly just needed a little bit more formation,” Johnson said. “The mission continues, but as winter fast approaches, our need for greater collaboration and coordination grows.”
Grace and Peace Church, 1856 N. Leclaire Ave, is uniquely prepared to help the city rapidly shelter people, with experience resettling over 400 families in under 60 days, Zayas said.
“We as pastors and faith leaders are standing in the gap for those who are there, and we want to offer our services to the city of Chicago,” Zayas said. “The American dream is still alive to those who seek it.”
>The program is being funded by $350,000 in private donations, Zayas said.That includes a significant donation from employment law firm Fish Potter Bolaños, P.C., which has seen migrants “desperate to work” as new arrivals continue to outpace the number of federally authorized work permits, partner David Fish said.
>(They're) all getting kick-backs.
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>17 Churches To Become Migrant Shelters As City Hurries To Provide Housing For Winter
last bit of that article.
Over 22,700 migrants have come to Chicago since August 2022.
Over 1,200 migrants are still sleeping inside or outside police stations or at O’Hare Airport, waiting to be placed inside a city shelter, officials said. Nearly 13,000 people are in shelters as of Tuesday.
Some migrants have already been moved from police station lobbies and sidewalks in recent days. Officials said eight stations have been cleared out.
Construction on a migrant base camp in Brighton Park is set to break ground Wednesday. The city also plans to build another tent camp on the Far South Side plus a centralized intake center with the help of $160 million from the state.
Rev. Beth Brown of Lincoln Park Presbyterian has years of experience housing migrants, in part through the church’s own program launched in June with help from a state grant.
While she supported the city’s new initiative, Brown said she found it “interesting” the mayor is only now publicly touting faith groups’ work to assist migrants as the need for housing intensifies.
Migrants unaccustomed to Chicago’s climate already have endured frigid conditions in recent weeks. The city is still behind in getting people into safe situations, Brown said.
“We’ve been housing asylum seekers since 2019,” Brown said. “Anything the city does that is humane, I’m supportive of, but whoa, there’s a lot that’s falling through the cracks.”
City staffing and additional security would be needed beyond church volunteers to make the “Unity Initiative” viable, Brown said.
“I think this is promising, and I think there are a lot of logistics to work out,” Brown said.